Ling & Ting Share a Birthday by Grace Lin
24 Sep, by in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers
The inimitable Grace Lin is at it again ...
BookDragon Chinese American
Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang, color by Lark Pien
20 Sep, by in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Young Adult Readers
In 2006, Gene Luen Yang made major literary headlines when his then-debut, American Born Chinese, became (not without controversy, ahem!) the first-ever graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award. [Click here for my 2007 post-NBA interview with Yang.] Released earlier this month, Yang's two-volume Boxers &...
Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Search (Parts Two and Three) created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, script by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler
23 Aug, by in Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers
Okay, for the latest full Avatar experience, might I suggest you do a bit of catch-up homework first: To find out what prompts this eponymous ‘search,’ you’ll need to read the three-part Promise which reveals why family relationships matters so much, especially to Aang and Zuko; then...
On the Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome with Love and Pasta by Jen Lin-Liu
22 Jul, by in Adult Readers, Central Asian, Chinese, Chinese American, Memoir, Nonfiction
Just in case you're pressed for time, let me offer this short-cut alternative up front: if you're looking for a fabulous foodie book that takes you to unexpected corners of the world, bypass Noodle Road and try Jennifer 8. Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles instead. If...
Ruby Lu, Star of the Show by Lenore Look, illustrated by Stef Choi
14 Jul, by in Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers
If Lenore Look’s East Coast leading man, the delightfully frank Alvin Ho, admits to being afraid of just about everything, his West Coast counterpart, wondergirl Ruby Lu, lets little slow her down. Regardless of their opposite fear factors, both of Look's bicoastal protagonists are multicultural heroes with close family ties...
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters (Book 2), Allergic to Birthday Parties, Science Projects, and Other Man-Made Catastrophes (Book 3), Allergic to Dead Bodies, Funerals, and Other Fatal Circumstances (Book 4), Allergic to Babies, Burglars, and Other Bumps in the Night (Book 5) by Lenore Look, illustrated by LeUyen Pham
08 Jul, by in Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Vietnamese American
As part of appreciating the versatile art of LeUyen Pham – who with her hubby Alex Puvilland imbued Friday's post, Templar, with such swashbuckling energy – I thought I should keep a good thing going by adding a few more Pham-tabulously illustrated titles this bright new Monday. [Truth be told, I...
Brush of the Gods by Lenore Look, illustrated by Meilo So
19 Jun, by in Biography, British Asian, Children/Picture Books, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction
Somehow, over the last millennium-plus, the life story of Wu Daozi (689-759), possibly China's greatest painter, went mostly missing. Chinese American author Lenore Look (best known for her entertaining double series about growing up bicultural, Alvin Ho and Ruby Lu), together with British Asian illustrator Meilo So, whimsically...
Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen, illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks
31 May, by in Chinese American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers
Welcome to Hollow Ridge High School ...
Three Years and Eight Months by Icy Smith, illustrated by Jennifer Kindert
08 May, by in Children/Picture Books, Chinese, Chinese American, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction
Parents with young children: please take caution in sharing this book with your youngest readers. Although the narrator is "only a 10-year-old boy," what he witnesses, endures, and survives during the titular 'three years and eight months' of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during...
Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Search (Part One) created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, script by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler
03 May, by in Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers
To find out what prompts this eponymous ‘search,’ you’ll need to read the three-part Promise – which reveals how Aang and Zuko are actually family (surprise!), and why family matters so much. “Family is in essence a small nation, and the nation a large family … in...
Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Promise (Part Three) created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, script by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler
03 May, by in Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers
Okay, since this is the third and last part of this specific Avatar series, let's go back and catch up here ...
The Hakka Cookbook: Chinese Soul Food from Around the World by Linda Lau Anusasananan, art by Alan Lau, foreword by Martin Yan
05 Mar, by in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Memoir, Nonfiction
How come no one is out there cooking their way through all the recipes of an Asian cookbook and blogging about it, then making a movie with ...
Etched in Clay: The Life of Dave, Enslaved Potter and Poet by Andrea Cheng, woodcuts by the author
21 Feb, by in Biography, Black/African American, Chinese American, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Poetry, Verse Novel/Nonfiction
Absolute details surrounding the life of Dave the Potter are limited and uncertain. What remains of his life story almost two centuries later, is scattered with uncertain words, including 'sometime,' 'about,' 'believed to be,' 'might,' 'possibly,' and other such noncommittal qualifiers. The few surviving documents...
Author Interview: Pauline A. Chen [in Bloom]
20 Feb, by in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers
A couple of days after filing my feature on Pauline A. Chen, I got on the phone to ask her all the questions I couldn’t find answers to out there in the virtual world of google-ing. True confession moment: I admit I was a wee bit...
The Red Chamber by Pauline A. Chen + Author Profile [in Bloom]
18 Feb, by in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese American
When the teenaged Pauline Chen arrived in Harvard Yard, her intention was to become a writer. The American-born daughter of Taiwanese parents, she grew up amidst Long Island’s endless strip malls and was determined – she wrote in July 2012 at Tribute Books – to shed her “provincial” upbringing....
Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds by Ping Fu with MeiMei Fox [in Bookslut]
05 Feb, by in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost
This is not a spoiler: If you take a good look at the cover of the recent memoir Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds, you know the pages will deliver a happy ending ...
The Year of the Snake: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac by Oliver Chin, illustrated by Jennifer Wood
21 Jan, by in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction
Three weeks into the new year, and I'm already so behind I surely wouldn't mind a do-over. I don't think I've ever been this tardy before with the latest annual installment of Oliver Chin‘s energetic, entertaining Tales from the Chinese Zodiac series, but hopefully this is a case...
The Spy Lover by Kiana Davenport
26 Dec, by in Adult Readers, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Hawaiian, Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples
The Spy Lover lingered on the top of my must-read pile for months, mainly because I just needed a break from the death and destruction of war (seems to be my reading theme for too much of this year!). I wasn't wrong to be afraid: set during...
Nighttime Ninja by Barbara DaCosta, illustrated by Ed Young
06 Dec, by in Children/Picture Books, Chinese American, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific
The draw here (couldn't resist, ahem!) is the ever-spectacular art of Caldecott Medal-winner Ed Young, this time using "cut paper, textured cloth, string, and colored pencil" to give dramatic motion to Barbara DaCosta's debut kiddie title. As the clock strikes midnight and everyone sleeps, the nighttime ninja climbs,...
Publisher Interview: Sunyoung Lee and Kaya Press [in Bookslut]
03 Dec, by in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese American, Fiction, Japanese American, Korean American, Pan-Asian, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Poetry, Repost, Translation
Early this year, at almost 18 years old, Kaya Press flew the nest. Leaving behind the comfort and familiarity of New York's publishing world, the non-profit indie specializing in "books from the Asian diaspora," moved offices across the country to Los Angeles. Now comfortably ensconced...